Over a period of time, visual content has become more powerful than ever on social media. The more we utilize our mobile phones, the greater the urge to share a glimpse of our daily lives through images and videos. The usage of social media stories is on the rise in social media while news feeds are seeing a decline in usage.
This shift in behaviour has also brought an interesting change in our social media consumption. Social media stories across all popular platforms are turning more popular over the years and this brings out a big question; will social media news feeds will lose all its significance over time?
Facebook seemed to know of this shift for several years now when they were acquiring WhatsApp and Instagram to catch up with the rise of messaging and visual content on mobile.
Does this officially mean that we are heading towards a new era in social media? The stats indicate that there is an interesting shift going on.
Some Stats we need to look at
It is estimated that presently there are more than 970 million accounts who post social media stories daily on Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger.
If this number isn’t impressive enough, it undoubtedly grabs our attention by the fact that there has been an 842% lift from early 2016, while the rise was 15x higher than news feeds from Quarter 2, 2016 to Quarter 3, 2017.
How Snapchat and Instagram have contributed to this trend
Snapchat has been the source of inspiration for this trend that took over all the big social media platforms. It was popular among younger demographics and the rise of ephemeral content through vertical video narratives that skyrocketed its popularity.
It is estimated that 81% of its daily users post Stories, as it is a core feature of the platform. In fact, it was the decision of Snapchat to place its camera feature at the centre of the focus of the app that brought this gradual growth that many apps now imitate.
However, it was Instagram that took this trend to the whole new level by introducing it to a larger audience. There are presently over 300 million daily Stories user on Instagram, which accounts for 60% of its audience.
When it comes to businesses, over 50% of the organizations create Instagram Stories every month and this statistic is expected to increase over the next few years.
How marketers can adapt to this change
As this shift happens marketing professionals should be at the forefront of this trend to stay relevant to their audience while they future-proof their social strategy.
Here are three tips on how to match the change to improve your social presence
- How marketing professionals can adapt to this change
It is presently the right time to start being more strategic with the social media Stories that you are posting. They can be an incredible method to increase your engagement with your audience by grabbing their attention. There is no need to keep posting Stories sporadically. Begin treating them as any other social content and plan the week or month ahead, if possible.
The more you integrate the Stories into your social media strategy, the easier it will be to pay the right attention to them.
- Focus on what works
You don’t have to abandon your existing social media strategy to focus exclusively on Stories. If you already know what works for your audience, then ensure that you stay consistent.
Social media stories can be a great addition to your strategy but you don’t need to ignore all the other types of contents that can also be successful for your brand.
Find a balance between what perfectly works and what could potentially work.
- Follow the trends
There is no right or wrong way when creating social media stories. But there are many brands among various industries that have already mastered the strategies of social media stories.
Don’t be afraid to keep an eye on them to get inspired by their content and strategies. What’s significant is to tailor all the creative ideas in the best way possible for your audience and that’s when your strategy can help.
Moreover, it’s useful to follow the trends that shift our pattern of posting. For example, AR or GIF stickers have begun showing up and they tend to be more engaging for users.
Bring different teams together to brainstorm how you can build more appealing social media stories through a mix of brand, marketing and video production and design skills.
Conclusion
Social media stories are still a relatively new medium on social media, so this is the perfect time to begin exploiting on all they offer. Social media stories can give an extraordinary twist to your marketing strategies providing new ways to promote flash sales, present exclusive content, discount codes, or create hype before an upcoming event.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chandrima Samanta
Content-Editor at MartechCube
Chandrima is a Content management executive with a flair for creating high quality content irrespective of genre. She believes in crafting stories irrespective of genre and bringing them to a creative form. Prior to working for MartechCube she was a Business Analyst with Capgemini.